Integration techniques in customer-supplier relationships: An empirical research in the Italian industry of household appliances

The paper explores the management of customer-supplier relationships through the adoption of a set of practices supporting integration in interface processes. A classification of relevant integration techniques (i.e. decisions on how to manage interface processes) and tools (i.e. assets or resources that support the adoption of techniques) is provided: techniques are grouped into the operations, technological and strategic domains, while tools are divided into the information technology, management and organization classes. An in-field research in the Italian industry of components for household appliances provided the ground to measure the diffusion of techniques and tools in the relationships between component manufacturers and appliance OEMs. The study found that the most adopted are the techniques related to operations management, coherently with the industry priorities, while the diffusion of technological and strategic techniques is low. Tools, on the other hand, have generally a low diffusion rate, except for vendor rating systems and e-procurement. Analyzing firms' efficiency and effectiveness performances, it is possible to notice how the best performing firms are the ones adopting the higher number of techniques and tools in all domains, while efficiency-oriented companies focus their integration practices (that are actually light) in the logistic domain, and growth-oriented companies give great importance to coordination in new product development and strategic planning. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.